Summit to chart teamwork with Africa

Beijing has confirmed that the upcoming 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation next month is expected to adopt two important documents and "chart the path for high-quality cooperation between China and Africa over the next three years".

As agreed by the two sides, the two documents will be a declaration and an action plan, Vice-Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong told reporters at a briefing in Beijing on Friday.

The two sides will build consensus on "major issues such as joining hands to advance modernization and building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future", Chen said.

Observers noted that the upcoming summit marks another great reunion of FOCAC leaders since the last summit in 2018, and the 24-year-old forum has successfully developed its own features of seeking an equal footing, pragmatism and efficacy.

On Sept 5, President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the summit and deliver a keynote speech, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying announced on Friday.

In his speech, Xi will outline new ideas and propositions on building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future, and "will announce new actions and initiatives on practical cooperation with Africa", Chen said.

China has been Africa's largest trade partner for 15 consecutive years. Last year, annual two-way trade between China and Africa reached a record $282.1 billion.

Cooperation between China and the continent has grown rapidly in emerging areas, such as the digital economy, the green economy, aerospace and the financial sector, Chinese officials noted.

Wu Peng, Chinese ambassador to South Africa, said FOCAC is the most important "signature dish" of China-Africa solidarity and cooperation.

It "has become a flagship of international cooperation with Africa and a role model of South-South cooperation over the past 24 years since its founding", he said at a seminar held last week.

"China and Africa have long been a natural community with a shared future, because the two sides have exchanged support in the international arena and have forged deep bonds and friendship over the past decades," said Wang Yiwei, a professor at Renmin University of China's School of International Studies and director of the university's Institute of International Affairs.

"It has been part of China's foreign policy cornerstone to develop solidarity and collaboration with African countries, and this is a strategic, firm and constant choice made by China," he said.

Reinforced collaboration in the economy and trade in the current new context still means a lot, because China seeks not just expanded trade and investment in the continent, but is also helping Africa to achieve industrialization and its transition to digitalization, he added.

During the upcoming summit, President Xi will also host a welcoming banquet as well as relevant bilateral events for the leaders of FOCAC's African members and representatives of relevant African regional organizations and international organizations invited to the summit.

For the first time in the history of the FOCAC summits, four high-level sessions will be held in parallel this time focusing on four topics: governance; industrialization and agricultural modernization; peace and security; and high quality co-building of the Belt and Road.

The four topics will enable various attending parties to have more time for in-depth exchanges on these most significant and pressing issues in bilateral cooperation, said Chen, the vice-foreign minister.

They "reflect the common attention and expectations of China and Africa on modernization and development, and they point to the key directions for FOCAC's buildup in the new era", he added.

In recent years, Beijing has introduced a range of visions and plans to gear up collaboration with the African continent, such as the Initiative on Supporting Africa's Industrialization, the Plan for China Supporting Africa's Agricultural Modernization, and the Plan for China-Africa Cooperation on Talent Development.

"China-Africa cooperation has helped Africa achieve socioeconomic development and livelihood improvement, and is sincerely welcomed by African countries and people. Facts prove that China is Africa's reliable partner and true friend," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said earlier this week.